Crews Attempt Giant Game Of ‘Pick-Up Sticks’ Residents May Have To Be Kept Away From Derailment For Weeks

Crews from Texas clambered amid the volatile wreckage of derailed propane tankers Saturday, painstakingly building an earthen pit to burn siphoned fuel that has raised fears of an explosion.

The 1,700 residents evacuated from this central Wisconsin town Monday were told it might not be safe to return home for three weeks because the propane, left in a blazing train wreck, would have to burn off by itself.

There was no word Saturday on prospects for ending the evacuation. But the National Guard said 132 residents dressed in flak jackets and Army helmets had been allowed to dash in and retrieve about 125 dogs, more than 150 cats and 56 other assorted pets Friday.

Reconnaissance teams also examined the wreckage and found enough propane had burned off to allow workers near the scene. Flames no longer appeared to be under as much pressure - a “lazy burn” rather than a blowtorch, said Terry Corson, operations officer for Wisconsin Central railroad.

But the operation to upright and drain the tankers was not without great risk, Wisconsin National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Fox said.

“This is going to be not unlike a game of giant Pick up Sticks,” Fox said. “On a 1-to-10 scale this is an absolute 10 in terms of danger to the technical crew out there now. I am told this is like fighting a wildcat fire.”

The railroad had hired experts from Texas who were standing by for an opportunity to enter the site. On Saturday, 17 men went in and attached safety valves to most of the tankers to lessen the chance of an explosion, Corson said. They planned to drain fuel with hoses running into burn pits constructed with bulldozers and dump trucks, Fox said.

“It will flare off much like a butane lighter,” he said.

There would be no attempt to fight fires in five other tankers that had been burning since 35 cars of the train derailed about 6 a.m. Monday, he said. The train carried 14 propane tankers.

The investigation into the cause of the derailment found nothing abnormal with the train, said Cedestra Jordan, a deputy regional administrator for the railroad administration.

Monitoring of air and water in the nearby Wolf and Waupaca rivers found no contamination, said David Ullrich, the EPA’s deputy regional administrator.